Another layer of tint has been added to Haywood County’s changing political canvas.

Election Day results paint a picture of a red county growing redder. From Donald Trump to Brandon Rogers, Republicans were the big winners in Haywood County on Nov. 8, splashing broad strokes of red over what was once blue while also deepening rosy hues that have been so for decades.

Even though both parties appeared confident about their candidates moving into Election Day, there were a lot of white knuckles and nail biting as results started to pour in across North Carolina last Tuesday night.

As Jonathan Creek Road meanders south from Interstate 40 some 17 miles hence, it forms a “T” with Soco Road.  

There, at that busy three-way intersection linking Maggie Valley and Waynesville with the outside world, sat Doug Smith. 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke to a packed Asheville Civic Center on Monday as boisterous supporters cheered him on inside the arena while virulent anti-Trump protestors heckled people on their way in and out of the event.

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A scuffle inside the civic center interrupted Trump’s speech at one point when a supporter in the upper levels appeared to choke one anti-Trump protestor and slap two others before the protestors were escorted out by security. The man doing the choking was left alone by security.

Some local Republicans got their brief fling with fame during Donald Trump’s campaign rally Monday in Asheville.

For 223 years, the highest office in the land has been passed from one man to another without bloodshed or widespread violence. This year the same will likely occur regardless of the sex of the victor.

“You’re a Nazi,” the 20-something female screamed into the face of an elderly veteran.

The veteran shrugged off the comment as he barreled through the onslaught of protesters, only to find a safe haven amid the security guards and likeminded folks headed for the entrance of the Donald J. Trump presidential rally held this past Monday at the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Asheville.

Motorcyclists have always been a distinct subset of the American population, long before they gained infamy in Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, published by Random House in 1966; Marlon Brando gave credibility to the “outlaw” stereotype in the 1953 biker flick “The Wild One,” and James Dean solidified it in the 1955 movie “Rebel Without a Cause.”

In the second quarter of 2016, Burnsville Republican State Rep. Michelle Presnell only received one contribution that wasn’t from a political action committee, a professional association or another candidate.

The North Carolina Senate has become emboldened in its partisanship over the last couple of years, and there appears to be no end in sight. Under the leadership of Sen. Phil Berger, the president pro tem, and his troops — including our own Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin — it has ventured so far to the right and is making moves that are so politically heavy-handed that even Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and the GOP-controlled state House often call foul.